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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24367594">Fangs</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/UndeadFae/pseuds/UndeadFae'>UndeadFae</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Inazuma Eleven</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Genda is a reckless idiot, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Not Beta Read, Sakuma worries, lots of training, seriously they all need help, teikokuweek, the teikoku worries</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 10:54:40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,443</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24367594</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/UndeadFae/pseuds/UndeadFae</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After the Zeus match, Genda knew he had to become stronger. For his team.<br/>Relying on a forbidden technique was not the best idea, though. He'd find a way to work with it without landing himself back in the hospital in the process.</p><p>Day 1 of teikokuweek: Victory</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Genda Koujirou/Sakuma Jirou</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Fangs</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>finally i have an excuse to write the thing that i've had in mind for ages HEHEHEHEHEHEHE<br/>please enjoy</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Beast Fang. One of the strongest keeper hissatsu to have ever been created, able to effortlessly stop any shot with the sheer power and fury of a beast.</p><p>Of course it had to be Kageyama the one to create such an evil technique, the man didn’t care about anything but having as much power in his hands as possible, no matter the cost- even if that cost could end up being his own players’ life.</p><p>Genda knew this was a dangerous move, knew it likely wasn’t worth the risk he was putting himself into. He also knew he needed to become stronger, the match against Zeus and the time in the hospital enough proof of it. He needed to become strong enough to let everyone rely on him, to let their worries fade once they knew that he had their back.</p><p>When he walked out of the school after practice, his bag almost felt heavier, the notebook he didn’t have before heavier than it should be. No one had noticed how he quietly slipped out of the locker room, how he had found and taken one of those notebooks that had been locked away long ago, hiding it under his shirt before coming back for his bag and excusing himself as just having to take a quick trip to the bathroom before leaving. No one realized that he had wrapped the notebook inside his uniform shirt, stuffing it in his bag a bit more hastily than usual, leaving before anyone could notice.</p><p>Once he was back home and in his room, Genda sighed, not sure of how relieved he should at being able to hide this so well from everyone else. Sitting on the bed, he pulled the shirt out of his bag, throwing it to the floor with a mental note of putting it in the washing machine later. The notebook’s cover made it almost look innocent, no different than something he’d use for school work, Kageyama’s precise, almost methodical handwriting standing out right away.</p><p>Catch hissatsu, manual no. 1.</p><p>With a deep breath, painfully aware of what was likely to be a horrible mistake, Genda opened the notebook.</p><p>The notes were neatly written, detailing everything about the hissatsu, starting from the physical skills required and possible training for it. As much as he hated to admit it, Kageyama knew what he was doing, was smart enough to even be able to put together such a strong hissatsu without even playing the position for it.</p><p>Genda had to wonder if Kageyama ever planned on making him use this hissatsu, had he kept his role as Teikoku’s coach long enough to deem him weak enough after their recent losses. A shiver ran down his spine as he pictured the scene in his mind. It definitely sounded like something Kageyama would’ve done, and he was suddenly so relieved knowing the man was rotting in prison like he deserved.</p><p>After reading the notebook, Genda made up his mind. Beast Fang was too dangerous to use.</p><p>He wasn’t giving up that quickly, though. If the original hissatsu couldn’t be used, then Genda would find another way, no matter what. He had to- he needed to be stronger for them.</p><p>The problem of Beast Fang was the recoil, bad enough to even break bones, if not worse. All he had to do was find a way to get rid of it without taking away from the hissatsu’s power- not too much, at least. No big deal, he could do this.</p><p>He hoped so.</p><p>With the weekend nearly there, Genda figured it was the best time to get started on the actual training. Beast Fang required a great amount of physical strength and resistance, if he wanted to get rid of the recoil and be able to use it safely, he’d need to have the strength to properly execute it. At least that would be easier to pass off as just some extra training without raising suspicions.</p><p>“Koujirou? What’s going on? You’ve been training a lot lately…” Sakuma watched from his spot as Genda continued with his push-ups, switching from one hand to another after a certain amount without a break. He had been doing this for a few days already, getting to training as soon as he could like their daily practice wasn’t enough. It was worrying him, seeing Genda push himself so much.</p><p>“I thought you liked what you were seeing.” Sakuma rolled his eye, throwing his empty water bottle at him. He wouldn’t admit the slight warmth he could feel creeping on his cheeks.</p><p>“Shut up, you ass- you know what I’m talking about.” When Genda finally took a break, Sakuma handed him a new bottle. Genda accepted it with a muttered thanks, wiping off the sweat with the fabric of his tank top before drinking some much needed water. “Seriously- you’ve been training so much harder than before out of nowhere. What’s going on?”</p><p>Genda just sighed after downing half of the bottle, taking a moment to sit down and rest his sore muscles, much to Sakuma's relief.</p><p>“It’s nothing, don’t worry.” Sakuma raised an eyebrow, clearly not believing him. It was worth a shot, at least. “… I just want to get stronger. After the match against Zeus… I want to be stronger. For everyone. That’s all.” Of course- Sakuma should’ve seen that coming.</p><p>“Koujirou…” Sakuma stood to get closer to him, hugging him despite how uncomfortable it was with all the sweat and the clothes sticking to his skin. “You don’t have to do this… you’re already strong. Stronger than you can even imagine.”</p><p>Genda blinked, to then wrap an arm around him. Sakuma could tell he wasn’t convinced, but didn’t pay it any mind, still hoping he could change his mind before Genda ended up pushing himself far too much. It wouldn’t be the first time, he was too stubborn for his own good, too focused on the wellbeing and needs of the team and his friends to think about his own first.</p><p>“Don’t worry about me, I’ll be careful.”</p><p>Sakuma really wished he could believe that. In the end, all he could do was watch as Genda kept pushing himself over and over, too close to his own limits for comfort, gently asking him to sit down and rest when he clearly needed it and couldn’t keep leaving it for later.</p>
<hr/><p>When he wasn’t busy with training, practice or homework, Genda would sit in his room, either at his desk or on the bed when he was too tired, notebook in hand, going over Kageyama’s notes one more time to improve on his work. It was almost eerie how easily he had gotten used to reading them, like they weren’t something to be afraid of anymore.</p><p>Eventually, he decided that he needed to take notes, if anything to at least make sense of some of Kageyama’s more complicated ones. Pencil in hand, he started writing on the edges of the pages, everything that could come to his mind written down. No one would be looking at this notebook any time soon, anyways, so might as well use the blank spaces.</p><p>He might not be the brightest or smarter guy of the team, but he at least knew enough about goalkeeping to understand what he was reading. Kageyama might think he’s smart for managing to put together such a strong technique, but he kept underestimating his players, kept seeing them as nothing more than their loyal pawns, unable to stray away from the path he had been crafting for his own selfish goals. That was his biggest mistake.</p><p>Perhaps the scariest part of reading that man’s notes was how easily he could see himself using this hissatsu, how well he could picture it in motion, disregarding the consequences. He promised himself to be as careful as he could be when it was time to put his theories into practice.</p>
<hr/><p>Saying Sakuma was worried about Genda would be an understatement.</p><p>They all were seeing it- whatever Genda was doing, he had been pushing himself far more than what should be healthy, still pushing himself to go on when he was well past his limit and in dire need of rest. They all saw a few more band aids and bandages than usual on his hands and arms, in plain sight whenever they changed in the locker room. The worst part was, he refused to tell anyone why. As much as they asked, no one could get an answer out of him.</p><p>It was the same each day, practice, school, more practice and then Genda was gone, faster than anyone could stop him. They tried calling and texting him to find out where he was, but all he did was reassure them that he was alright, always dodging all their questions as careful as he could be.</p><p>Sakuma was tired of all the secrets.</p><p>When practice was over and Genda was ready to leave, he was prepared to follow.</p><p>To his surprise, Genda had just headed home, texting him to let him know that he had arrived safely and sending some of his usual spams of hearts and penguins to wish him a good afternoon. So he hadn’t been lying…? Something wasn’t right.</p><p>Before doing anything else, Sakuma decided to text him back, asking if it was alright for him to come over. Time passed, and no answer came. Sakuma had enough.</p><p>He remembered Genda telling him where the spare key was, just in case, trusting him enough with something like that. Maybe this wasn’t exactly the sort of circumstances he was expecting, but for Sakuma, they were serious enough to warrant the use of the spare key.</p><p>Unlocking the door, Sakuma quietly stepped into the house, locking it behind him as he looked around.</p><p>“Koujirou…?” He was hesitant as he called his name, almost afraid to be caught in that situation. Would Genda really be alright with this? What if he got angry? It wasn’t like he didn’t have reason to… but… Sakuma was too worried to let it go on any longer. Whatever it was.</p><p>When he didn’t receive any answer, he carefully walked further into the house, dread building up in his stomach. What if Genda had finally hit his limit? What if no one had realized that it was too late? What if-</p><p>A loud grunt followed by someone hitting the ground caught his attention, snapping him out of his thoughts. Steeling himself for what he could find, Sakuma made his way to the backyard, not sure what to expect or what to hope for.</p><p>Genda was on the ground, panting and shaking, clothes dirty and sweaty. Sakuma didn’t pay any attention to the old tire hanging from the tree by a worn out rope, rushing to his side instead.</p><p>“Koujirou-! What- what are you doing?! Are you alright?!” He looked him over for any sign of injuries, only slightly relieved when he didn’t find any blood. Genda was still busy catching his breath, his arms shaking under his weight and gloved fingers digging into the dirt.</p><p>“Jirou…? W-what… what are you doing here…?”</p><p>“What sort of question is that- I’m here to check on you, you idiot!” Huffing, Sakuma helped him get back on his feet, catching him when he staggered. “What are you doing…? You look horrible…”</p><p>Genda just shook his head, still stubbornly trying to keep the secret, just pushing himself back inside the house with Sakuma's help. Sakuma all but forced him to sit down on a chair, already looking around for a glass to give him some water. Meanwhile, Genda pulled of his gloves, wincing at the sight of the angry red skin already bruising. Once Sakuma's eye fell on his hands, he looked around for an ice pack, handing him ice and water to him before heading to the bathroom for some bandages and ointments, cursing under his breath all the way there.</p><p>When he came back, Genda looked just a bit better than before, glass empty and ice pack clutched tightly in his hands for some relief. Sakuma pulled a chair closer to him, sitting to carefully look over his hands.</p><p>“So, feel like explaining what’s going on now?”</p><p>“It’s nothing-” he cut himself off and winced when Sakuma touched a particularly sore spot.</p><p>“You were saying?” Genda sighed, realizing that Sakuma wouldn’t be taking any more excuses.</p><p>“… I’m training for a new hissatsu.” It was all he was willing to say. Not exactly a lie either. Sakuma quietly sighed, trying to be as careful as possible when treating and wrapping his bruised hands.</p><p>“You could’ve told us, you know…”</p><p>“I know… I just- I didn’t want to worry anyone. More than they already do.” Hard not to worry anyone after having to let them see in intensive care in the hospital. In hindsight, this was starting to look worse and worse the more he thought about it.</p><p>“We worry because we care- get it through your thick skull already.” It was something they had always struggled with, even before their match with Zeus and its consequences. Frowning as he finished bandaging his hands, Sakuma just held them in silence for a bit, careful of not hurting him even more. Then, he leaned in, gently kissing his cheek. “Please… trust us enough to help you.”</p><p>Hearing that soft plea hurt him more than he expected.</p><p>“… Believe me, I trust you- I trust you more than anyone else…” but he couldn’t hurt him like that, couldn’t let him know just yet.</p><p>“… Alright.” Huffing, Sakuma relented, standing up, still reluctant to let go of his hands. “I… I need to go now. You better take a break for today, alright?”</p><p>“Fine, fine, I will…” He did need to rest, by now. Sakuma was seemingly satisfied with his answer, nodding in approval and heading towards the door, Genda walking right behind him. Before stepping out of the house, Sakuma stopped and turned to him, giving him another quick kiss on the cheek before waving goodbye, Genda watching him leave with a soft smile on his face. He quietly promised himself that he would make this work, would be as careful as he could be for his- their sake.</p><p>They didn’t deserve to go through something like Zeus again.</p><p>It had taken a few minutes for Sakuma to stop on his tracks, already well on his way home, finally realizing something.</p><p>“… Wait- where the hell did he get that tire?”</p><p>Later, Sakuma texted Kidou almost frantically, asking if Endou really had just lent his training tire to Genda. Kidou was as confused and lost as him, asking for a moment to confirm some things. Turns out, Endou did in fact let Genda take his tire for a while, but didn’t know anything more than they did, happy to help without any question asked. Now Kidou was growing exasperated, just one more thing to add to their ever growing list of worries.</p><p>Apparently, reckless stupidity was a common thing for keepers.</p>
<hr/><p>After fully realizing just how concerned everyone was, Genda knew that he couldn’t keep going on like this, at least to put them a bit more at ease.</p><p>It wasn’t exactly easy, not after being used for so long to push himself near the point of collapse, more often than not forgetting and reaching his limit once again, barely giving himself the time to rest. He kept apologizing whenever Sakuma or someone else caught him, promising that he’d try harder to keep himself in check next time. It wasn’t easy, but he did try. That was more than what Sakuma could ask for.</p><p>Eventually, he did manage to tone down his own training enough to keep him from dropping nearly dead for a good few hours every day. In exchange, he took the notebook with him to school, making sure no one would see it, taking his time in class to keep studying it whenever his attention drifted away from the lesson. The more he went over it, the more he felt like he was closer to reaching a breaking point, painfully so. He had to find a way to make it work, refused to have it any other way.</p><p>As focused as he was on the notebook, Genda didn’t notice Sakuma starting to watch him during classes. He had always known that Genda wasn’t the best in school despite how much he tried, already used to helping him get through it before a failing grade could separate them and make the classes unbearable, but he knew that Genda always tried his best regardless. To see him zone out like that, hardly focusing anymore… it concerned him. And it was all the fault of whatever hissatsu he had been working on- even without a direct confirmation, Sakuma knew that had to be it.</p><p>“Hey, Jirou? Can you keep an eye on my bag while I go to the bathroom?”</p><p>“Oh? Oh- yeah, sure, don’t worry.” He had been almost too distracted to hear him. Genda gave him a weird glance, but quickly dismissed it to leave the classroom.</p><p>Sakuma leaned on the desk with a frown. As distracted as he was over his boyfriend’s problems, Sakuma didn’t realize he was pushing the bag off the desk until it tumbled down, spilling its contents.</p><p>“Shit-!” Immediately standing up, he hurried to pick up and shove everything back into the bag as fast as he could, hoping Genda would take long enough in the bathroom as to not notice the mess.</p><p>The last thing he found on the floor was a notebook that definitely did not belong to Genda.</p><p>He picked it up, thinking it must’ve been nothing more than something borrowed from a classmate for homework, when the neat handwriting on the cover caught his eye. A catch hissatsu manual…? Now that was weird- for as long as they had been playing together, Genda had never been one to write down his techniques and training, much more comfortable just keeping everything in mind until he needed it. That, and his handwriting was far messier than the one on the cover. No one he knew had a handwriting remotely close to that one.</p><p>Curiosity having the best of him, Sakuma opened the notebook.</p><p>Among the unknown handwriting, Sakuma could recognize Genda's messy letters, notes and scribbles filling the once empty spaces on the pages, lots of question marks and thoughts on how to improve something. As much as he looked, he couldn’t find anything about the mysterious hissatsu, words that he could only guess were supposed to be names blacked out with pencil, strokes with enough strength put behind them to even make the pen lines under them impossible to decipher.</p><p>Whatever this was, it had to be related to Genda's self-imposed hellish training.</p><p>Before Genda could come back, Sakuma hurried to close and shove the notebook back into the bag, this time making sure of zipping it close as well- because of course Genda hadn’t done that either.</p><p>He still wasn’t sure of what was going on, the thought of Genda still getting himself hurt out of some search for power just to help everyone else enough to scare him, but Sakuma promised himself that he’d find a way to help him. Even when he didn’t know where to start or what he needed.</p>
<hr/><p>He was close to getting it right, he could tell that much. Getting up after his last attempt, Genda couldn’t help but punch the tire in frustration, ignoring the stinging in his already battered knuckles and how badly he wanted to just use the tire as a punching bag instead. Then, he shivered at the cold breeze, hugging himself and rubbing his arms, sighing as he looked up for a moment at the dark sky. His sweater wasn’t really enough to help him against the cold, but the sweat he had been building up was helping against it, at least a bit.</p><p>Ever since Sakuma had started keeping a closer eye on him, Genda was forced to pick different hours to keep training. It had been working to keep the questions at bay, even when it wasn’t ideal. As long as he could get it done, that was enough for him. The sooner, the better.</p><p>Sitting down to drink water and flip through the notebook’s pages again, he picked up the pencil tucked between the pages to keep adding notes. He had reached the blank pages near the end at some point, filling them with more notes, adding some schemes and doodles to help. At some point, what were just studies to get this hissatsu done had trailed off, eventually reaching a page filled with nothing but poorly made sketches of round penguins and cats. He absently traced the doodles with a finger, thinking about Sakuma and the way he had been stressing over him earlier, giving him a side glance in the middle of class whenever he could, just knowing even without being able to tell exactly what was going on.</p><p>Then, he remembered that match, remembered his teammates- his friends being swatted aside like flies, beaten down over and over until they didn’t have the energy or the will to get up again. He remembered how no one could rely on him to be the strong willed keeper that wouldn’t let a single shot get in, remembered how he could no longer stand tall and proud and reassure them all with a confident grin and an effortless save.</p><p>His hand gripped the pages tight enough to crumple the paper.</p><p>He had to do this. He had to be able to stand high above the rest like the king everyone claimed he was. For their sake, he had to do this.</p>
<hr/><p>The day of their next match had finally arrived. Saying everyone was worried sick over Genda didn’t quite express how they felt.</p><p>His usual stripes of orange make up barely covered the dark bags under his eyes, a hint of them still showing up near the edges. At some point during the morning, he had asked Narukami to let him borrow one of his energy drinks, promising that he would repay him later. Narukami was too dumbfounded to even say anything, just vaguely nodding and letting him take one. Seeing him so willing to take a drink after how much he chided Narukami for living off them was enough to raise red flags for the entire team, yet no one could bring himself to ask Genda just what was going on. Sakuma was the first to put his foot down, ready to tell Genda to sit this match out, only for the keeper to remind him that they didn’t have a reserve to take his place.</p><p>Through gritted teeth, Sakuma had to allow Genda to step into the pitch, his determination to play almost scary to look at. They all already silently agreed to force him to rest after this match, even if they had to physically stop him from doing anything for it.</p><p>For Genda's sake, they agreed to play more defensive, only being aggressive and attacking when they could safely do so. They weren’t even sure if Genda would be able to get through the entire match as it was, even when he was perfectly capable of just getting up after falling, refusing to leave his position. Sakuma couldn’t stop glancing at him whenever he had an opportunity, terrified of eventually turning and seeing him passed out on the ground. He knew that everyone else was sharing that same fear.</p><p>When the whistle started the match, they tried to focus as much as they could. Their improvised strategy was working better than Sakuma had expected, even managing to help them score a goal to his relief. The more advantage they managed to get, the better for everyone involved.</p><p>Of course, things couldn’t have gone as well as he expected for the entire match.</p><p>When their opponents took possession of the ball, the brief panic among the team was enough to throw off their game, just enough to let them dribble the defense. Sakuma screamed at them to fall back and help, but it was too late, hissatsu shot already heading towards the goal at full speed.</p><p>Sakuma hated to admit it, but in his current condition, he wasn’t sure if Genda would be able to catch it- hell, he didn’t even think that Genda would be able to execute his Full Power Shield in time-</p><p>When Genda crouched, a deep growl and a feral spark in his eyes like an animal ready to kill, everyone was at loss for words- they had never seen him use a hissatsu like this, never even seen him train for something like this at any time during their practice- and then Sakuma realized. The notebook, the secrets, the training… it all suddenly made sense, and he felt so stupid for not connecting the dots sooner.</p><p>“High Beast Fang!”</p><p>With the aid of the beast, Genda stopped the shot, the arm holding down the ball shaking ever so slightly, barely noticeable.</p><p>Then, it clicked, his eye widening and a hand quickly moving to cover his mouth, like that was enough to stop the startled gasp leaving him.</p><p>High Beast Fang. There was no way Genda hadn’t taken that from the forbidden hissatsu they had only heard of, Kidou having taken just a look at whatever Kageyama had planned before quickly deciding to lock them away for everyone’s safety.</p><p>Genda had taken a forbidden hissatsu to make it his own, out of some need for more strength and power.</p><p>Sakuma wanted to run up to him, to check and be sure he was alright before screaming at him until he was out of air. Genda knew it damn well, just hurrying to get the ball back in the game before he could do something he would regret.</p><p>The rest of the match felt like it lasted hours and just a few minutes all at once. Sakuma wasn’t even sure if he had managed to focus enough to be the captain they all needed, didn’t even know or care about the score at the end.</p><p>As soon as it was all over, he marched over to the locker room, followed by the rest of the team. They were all preparing for a storm, Genda more than anyone else, already expecting the worst, if his grim expression was anything to go by.</p><p>Once they were all gathered in, Sakuma nearly slammed the door shut.</p><p>Genda was sitting on the bench, still not taking off his gloves, avoiding everyone’s gaze like a criminal being sentenced. Sakuma didn’t make himself wait any longer.</p><p>“… Koujirou. What the fuck.” His quiet voice made Genda flinch. He didn’t answer right away, still too busy recovering and finding something to say. “What the fuck were you thinking?”</p><p>“… I’m sorry.” Somehow, that was all he had managed to come up with. It was all he could say by now.</p><p>“You- you could’ve ended up in the hospital again! Do you know how fucking dangerous that is?! How much you were worrying us?!” Of course he knew. It was exactly why he had tried to keep it a secret before anyone could stop him.</p><p>“… I know. I had to do it.” It was what he kept telling himself, the one thing he repeated whenever he spent countless hours pouring all his efforts on that notebook, punching and catching that tire until his hands were about to bleed, working at the worst time because it was the only time he could do so.</p><p>Now, seeing the results? He had to wonder if this was all Kageyama’s ever present shadow, still haunting the team. Except it wasn’t just that- he had just been too weak to hold himself back. The way everyone was hurting now was all his fault.</p><p>“Why.” Genda couldn’t bring himself to look at Sakuma. “Why was this so important? Why did you have to risk your health for this?”</p><p>“Because I was too weak to help anyone!”</p><p>His scream was enough to let the silence fall on the room, freezing like the heaviest rain. Feeling the shame already creeping up on him, he hung his head, eyes glued to his gloves, like he could see every bruise and scrape hidden underneath. No one said anything, waiting for him to finish.</p><p>“I was too weak to do anything. I couldn’t help anyone like this- how could I still be your keeper when all I’ve done is let you down over and over? I- I had to try- I had to know you could still trust me-!”</p><p>That did it. He didn’t even dare to look at them and see their reactions, already shaking. If it was the pain, the exhaustion or the emotions of the moment, he wasn’t sure- maybe all three together.</p><p>He only dared to look up when he felt the hand on his back, Sakuma now sitting at his side, looking at him in a mix of concern, pain and sadness. Without adding a word, Sakuma sighed, gently pulling him closer to his surprise. Sakuma was hugging him, his anger gone.</p><p>“Koujirou… you didn’t have to do this alone. We’re all here for you- so stop thinking you owe it to us to be strong, alright?” There were soft agreements across the room, Genda barely hearing any of them.</p><p>He was tired- scratch that, he was exhausted, completely drained physically and mentally, fairly sure he was about to get sick too. He didn’t care anymore, shaking in Sakuma's arms, breaking once he felt the gentle fingers brushing his hair.</p><p>At some point, the team had joined in, just doing what they could to help him come back from this.</p><p>It took them longer than usual to get ready and out of the locker room, and they all had to stop to help Genda gather his things and leave. They all walked him home, only feeling comfortable once Sakuma reassured them that he was passed out in bed and finally resting. They all needed it.</p><p>Even when Genda ended up stuck in bed with an awful cough and cold, Sakuma sighing as he took care of him, soothing him with gentle words and soft kisses, it was still worth it.</p><p>“Be more careful next time, alright?” Despite all the worries and fears that came with this whole ordeal, Sakuma still found it in him to stay calm and help him at the best of his abilities, something Genda would never be grateful enough for.</p><p>“S-sorry…” Sakuma just shook his head, fingers still brushing aside the messy hair with surprising gentleness.</p><p>“Don’t apologize anymore, it’s alright.” With that, he leaned in to softly kiss his forehead, then trailed down to his lips, his other hand resting on his cheek in an attempt to comfort him. Even with how awful he felt, with his throat hurting and his head spinning, Genda managed to smile.</p><p>Everything would be alright.</p>
<hr/><p>Things did not get better when Kageyama came back to his position of coach, his evil smirk still in place as he watched his team practice. It was during the first week that he had decided to approach Genda, everyone tense and ready to act at the slightest sign of danger, like a pack of animals ready to defend one of their own with all they had.</p><p>Kageyama’s smirk only widened into a sick smile as he looked down at him. Genda didn’t let it get to him, as much as he wanted this man to just get lost already, hardly biting back a few words he wouldn’t reserve for anyone else.</p><p>“You’ve mastered my Beast Fang.” It was a statement. One Genda wouldn’t accept.</p><p>“High Beast Fang.” He mindlessly corrected, refusing to see it as anything other than his own work and effort, built with blood and sweat upon the foul foundations Kageyama had laid and left to rot. “It’s my hissatsu now.”</p><p>He stubbornly refused to bow down. Kageyama only seemed to accept it as a challenge, or some childish rebellion that had to be taken care of. Genda would never admit the shiver that ran down his spine when looking at such a cruel and cold smile, like the man was already preparing something to doom them all and shape them once again into their puppets.</p><p>It wouldn’t work anymore- he wouldn’t let it work. They already won against Kageyama once, he won once he had mastered High Beast Fang.</p><p>They would win against him again, one way or another.</p><p>“We’ll see about that.”</p>
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